Wednesday, February 1, 2017

UNITED NATIONS, February 1 – When Ukraine's Ambassador to the UN Volodymyr Yelchenko held a press conference on his upcoming month as President of the UN Security Council, Inner City Press asked him about Yemen, Burundi and the need for UN reform. Video here.

Yelchenko said that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will briefing the Council, albeit behind closed doors, on February 3. Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Access, FUNCA, asked that he come to the Council stakeout position and provide a summary and take questions after such closed-door consultations.

On Yemen, for now the only meeting in February is on sanctions, a sign of the Council's failure on the issue.

But Yelchenko to his credit admitted that the quality of reports to the Security Council under Ban Ki-moon has been low. Inner City Press asked him to elaborate, citing DPKO and DPA still headed by Herve Ladsous and Jeffrey Feltman - until July! -- respectively. We'll have more on this.

Yelchenko said that closer ties between the Trump White House and Russia needn't impact US - Ukraine relations. After the press conference, he met with Palestine's Observer Mansour, who emerged to tell Inner City Press he's asked to meet US Ambassador Nikki Haley because he's had relations with both Democrats and Republicans. But the new US President is not necessarily like previous Republicans.